The station hall and mall straddles the tracks of High Speed 1, Britain’s one and only high speed railway. Eurostars hurtle you along these tracks when you’re off to Paris for a romantic weekend - or to Brussels to get bored.

It’s Thursday lunchtime.

Ebbsfleet International is very impressive but it lacks a certain je ne sais quoi.

Shops? Hmmm…

Bars? No. Er...

Passengers! That’s it!

A handful of Eurostar and Southeastern trains staff outnumber travellers.

Later, I tell a rail industry insider about the elephant at Ebbsfleet.

He chuckles, ‘Is it white?’

Go nose to tusk with Palaeoloxodon.

It’s a scaled-down model standing in a glass case plonked in front of a full-size mock-up of a Class 395 high speed train.

Class 395s will be called ‘Javelins’ during London’s 2012 Olympic Games.

A fleet of 29 six-car Javelins - ordered, built and delivered - will speed an estimated 25,000 Olympics spectators per day to Stratford International, the flagship station just yards from the Olympic Village.

I’m keen to see as much of Stratford International’s deep station box as 140mph will permit.

Martin, the on-board Train Manager, checks my £12.50 return ticket.

A six-car Javelin can carry 348-seated passengers and another 200 standing. But today’s 1207 carries more air than folk.

Martin has counted the passengers on one hand.

He disappears into the second car.

I’m on my todd.

With a soft click, 395017 eases away from an empty Platform 11.

Bang on time.

The driving cab and carriage glides from underneath the station canopy into flaring autumn sunlight.

The Javelin curves gracefully eastward, passing over long boats moored on the Regent’s Canal.

Javelins are dual voltage; they can collect electrical power from two sources.

To run at 140 mph (225 kmh) rooftop pantographs rise to make contact with High Speed 1’s overhead 25kV AC power lines (above photo).

Javelins can also run at 100 mph (160 kmh) on 750V DC third rails across Kent.

That’s good news for commuters in Ramsgate, Dover, Folkestone, Canterbury, Ashford and Ebbsfleet. Train operating company Southeastern plan to run a full domestic timetable running between these towns and London from December 13.

Watch out though. Southeastern, who lease the Javelins from owners HSBC Rail (UK), could whack a 35% premium on the Javelin fare.

Vastly reduced journey times could come at a hefty price.

Javelins also use regenerative brakes; when a Javelin brakes its traction motors feed current back to the supply system. Over my head all that power hums into the train as 395017 accelerates powerfully through
London Tunnel 1. After just five minutes the train is racing through Stratford International’s new, expensive yet still unused platforms. Only dust stops at this station.

Although Stratford International is as long as Tottenham Court Road, it’s just a flash of blurry light.

Breaking out of London Tunnel 2, the Javelin rapidly brings Ford’s at Dagenham into view, then the Queen Elizabeth II road bridge at Dartford and Rainham Marshes. All quickly vanish.

Apart from a few seconds of lateral wobbles, it’s an effortlessly smooth ride.

The last – 395029 – was carefully rolled off MV Tamesis on 17 August, 2009.

All 29 sets were shipped to the United Kingdom - via Panama - from the Japanese port of Kobe.

Hauled to Kobe from Hitachi’s train-building factory at Kasado.

That’s 12,772 miles (20,600 kilometres).

Surely, one of the world’s longest ever train journeys.

Alistair Darling selected Hitachi as the preferred builder of Britain’s first fleet of domestic high speed trains back in November 2004. A £250 million order, financed by HSBC Rail (UK), was duly placed in June 2005.

The Transport Secretary’s decision raised more fury than eyebrows.

Why couldn’t these trains be built by British train-builders at Alstom’s train manufacturing plant at Washwood Heath in Birmingham?

Or at Bombardier’s train factory at Derby?

After all, British engineers have been building trains for over 150 years.

British firms exported trains worldwide.

Britain invented railways!

Darling’s Hitachi dalliance stoked a fiery reaction from working people in the West Midlands. In June 2003, Alstom, a transport engineering giant backed by the French government, proudly announced it had won a £100 million contract to build new trains for London Underground’s Jubilee Line. The very next day, the company dropped its bombshell, revealing the new trains would be built overseas.

Back in 2004 I remember listening to guys like David Scragg, Bob Charles and David Evans on Washwood Heath’s shopfloor. They’d just helped Alstom to build a fleet of 53 tilting Class 390 Pendolinos for Richard Branson’s Virgin Trains. We walked out of the factory gates and past Alstom’s offices on Leigh Road heading towards the Cross Guns pub. Bob Charles, a fitter, lamented: “Many of these men are in their fifties. When they walk out of here, they and their train-building skills are never coming back.” (See Rail Professional, December 2004)

Today, Pendolinos continue to clock up thousands of journey miles between London and Glasgow but Alstom’s 56-acre Washwood Heath plant is now owned by St Modwen. The property developer has renamed the plant, Heartlands Park.

It’s a total misnomer.

Washwood Heath’s heart was ripped out six years ago.

Whatever happened to Scragg, Charles and Evans and the rest of those 1200 likely lads?

What became of the people they used to be?

One day soon, hopefully, I’ll catch up with them.

As for the future of train building in Britain, well maybe, just maybe, there might still be hope.

Cock-a-hoop Hitachi believe their Javelins represent a potentially lucrative entry into the European train market. Of course, the Javelins’ need to punctually and reliably operate Southeastern’s full timetable.

London Intelligence

Journalist, writer and Londoner

I hope this blog reveals new angles on London life. I also edit www.londonintelligence.co.uk, a site investigating life in London. I've written for newspapers, magazines and TV (The Independent, BBC, Channel 4, Whizzer & Chips...).
Trust you'll like the photos I've taken. Unless stated, they're all my own work! Hopefully we'll share some laughs along the way too. Finally, don't be shy...please feel free to comment on any postings.